The 8th Guangzhou International Light Festival will be held in Guangzhou, ChinafromNovember 26th, 2018 until April 25th, 2019. After seeing success for seven consecutive years, this annual event has grown into one of “the world’s top three light festivals” on par with the Lyon Festival of Lights in France and the Australian light festival Vivid Sydney. To date, the festival has attracted a total of more than 52 million visitors. This year, the event opened with a performance from Chinese intelligent drone technology company EHang Egret.

Under the theme of “the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up and the light shows in the new era of Flower City”, the opening ceremony of this year’s Guangzhou International Light Festival, started with a spectacular drone light show in the night sky on November 26th, performed by EHang Egret, as the prime example of “Wings of China“, perfectly matching the landmarks of Canton Tower and Flower City Square, to showcase a memorable story of the four-decade reform and opening up endeavors and great development of China and Guangzhou city.

Along with the lingering songs, the giant rotating gears created by hundreds of drones ushered the audiences back to the year 1978, when China started reform and opening up. Then the drones formed the shape of a phoenix flying high and waving its wings, symbolizinghow the economic development of Guangzhou, the forefront city of China’s reform, got to a rapid track.

The economic development promotes technological progress and vice versa. Two sets of revolving matrices made of drone lights around the Canton tower displayed the most advanced and cutting-edge technological development of China.

With a delightful music accompaniment, the drone formation sketched out the outline of Guangzhoucity and rows of buildings in the air, symbolizing Guangzhou’s significant modernization progress. The twinkling lights of the numerous buildings reflected the increasingly superior quality of life in the city.

At last, the drones created the symbol of the light festival. Around Canton Tower and both sides along the Pearl River, the four-decade story of Guangzhoumagnificently unfolded in the sky. Everyone couldfind their memories in the story.

40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up

Since the reform and opening up policy was initiated in 1978, it brought a series of outstanding achievements including China’s rapid economic growth, the constant increase in people’s living standards and China’s rising influence in world economy. China’s GDP has increased from being in the 15th position in 1978 to being 2nd.

As the capital city of Guangdong Province, the frontier and pilot of reform and opening up endeavor, Guangzhou has played a pioneering role during the last four decades. Guangzhou’s GDP has been ranked among the top three in the country for years. In 2014, China (Guangdong) Free Trade Zone was established. In 2017, the Fortune Global Forum was held in Guangzhou, witnessing the presence of nearly 400 domestic and foreign companies, including 152 enterprises on the Global 500 list.

EHang Egret’s drone formation, making its debut in the opening ceremony of the light festival, attributes its success to the rapid technological development of China in its four-decade open-minded and harmonious environment in the wake of the reform and opening up.

As a Guangzhou-based intelligent drone technology company founded in 2016, EHang Egret Media Technology Group independently developed China’s first drone formation technology. Within a period of two years, EHang Egret has become a world-class company by expanding its initial show of 101 drones to today’s huge fleet of 1374 drones. The company has boasted an amazing “world speed” in terms of both scale and technology.

In the 2017 Fortune Global Forum in Guangzhou, the company’s light show with 1180 drones impressed the whole world. In April 2018, it broke the record set by Intel for the Guinness World RecordsTM title for the “Most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) airborne simultaneously”.

Today, the company, as the holder of new Guinness World RecordsTM title of “The Most Consecutive Formations Formed by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Same Set”, has secured its presence at the pinnacle of the global drone formation stage.